Maryland volleyball coach Steve Aird wasn’t surprised that No. 10 Michigan State made quick work of the Terps on Saturday.
He was on the other side of the fight when he was an assistant coach at Penn State. He remembers going into an away arena, where his former team “mowed people down in 45 minutes.”
Now in his fourth-year at Maryland, his squad hasn’t turned its raw talent into that kind of consistent on-court success. But he wasn’t upset after the Terps’ straight-sets defeat to the Spartans (13-25, 17-25, 17-25) on the Xfinity Center main floor.
“The timeline isn’t what I want, it’s not what the players want, it’s not what the fans or boosters want,” Aird said. “It’s not a microwavable thing. It’s baking, and baking takes a while.
“Microwaves are cool. Everyone in life wants this instant, like, ‘Hey, we’re a Final Four team.’ We’re just not. We’ve got a lot of really good, young kids that are going to be really, really good in time, and I’m trying to build them up more than beat them up.”
Outside hitter Gia Milana led the Terps with nine kills, but Spartans Brooke Kranda and Alyssa Garvelink recorded double-digit kills while attacking better than a .500 clip.
Michigan State, which led the Big Ten with 14.55 kills per set entering Saturday’s match, notched 20 kills and a .486 hitting percentage against in the opening frame. All six players who contributed to that attacking line were seniors. Their six senior starters led them to a .381 hitting percentage for the match.
The Spartans also limited the Terps to their second-lowest point total in a frame this year during their dominant first set triumph.
“It’s going to be these guys in a couple of years,” middle blocker Hailey Murray said of her underclassmen teammates who formed back-to-back ranked recruiting classes. “It’s something I think is really good for our team to look at and just see what you want to get to.”
In Maryland’s straight-sets loss on Wednesday to No. 9 Wisconsin, Aird said his team took “mindless” shots that sailed out of play. The Terps (14-8, 3-7 Big Ten) avoided that issue in the first frame, tallying just four miscues despite falling behind the senior-loaded Spartans (15-4, 8-20).
Maryland’s loss had less to do with its own shortcomings than Michigan State’s superiority. The Terps committed at least 20 errors in each of their previous six matches. They broke that streak Saturday, finishing with 19 errors.
“I don’t think passing is the reason we lost, I don’t think setting is the reason we lost,” Aird said. “I think Michigan State is the reason we lost.”
In the second frame, Maryland captured its first lead of the match since the 2-1 mark of set one, but the 13-12 edge didn’t hold. The Terps managed just five more points in the frame as the Spartans cruised.
After a late 5-1 push from Maryland to narrow the third set, Michigan State closed out the contest with a kill from outside hitter Alyssa Chronowski.
“All of us are still kind of figuring [belief] out and have rough nights,” Murray said. “It’s cool to watch [the underclassmen] grow because they change so much week to week.”
